Genetics Institute Formed

New enterprise honors Victor McKusick and Daniel Nathans

Office of Communications andPublic Affairs, JHMI

Uniting nine centers, scores of physicians and scientists,
and budgets worth tens of millions of dollars, the
School of
Medicine has announced the formation of a new institute that
consolidates under a single institutional umbrella much of the
genetic disease research, education and treatment enterprise now
widely spread throughout Hopkins.

In naming the new institute the McKusick-Nathans Institute
of Genetic Medicine, Hopkins jointly honors two pioneer faculty
members, whose work in the lab and at the bedside over the past
40 years helped transform a fledgling scientific specialty into
the driving force of medicine.

Victor McKusick and Daniel Nathans took
center stage at a recent event announcing the formation of a new
institute named in their honor. The McKusick-Nathans Institute of
Genetic Medicine will consolidate nine centers under a single
institutional umbrella.

"We expect the combination of funds, facilities and
multidisciplinary faculty in human and experimental genetics to
form a critical mass that will attract even more talent and
resources to genetic medicine," said Bart Chernow, vice dean for
research and technology and acting director of the new institute.
"The future of medicine is irrevocably tied to genetics and to
the ability to gather and use information about genetics and the
human genome. Those institutions prepared to do these things
efficiently and effectively will spark an explosion in our
understanding of and ability to treat the multitude of diseases
related to genetic abnormalities."

Ultimately, Chernow said, the institute will have a
permanent physical home--in the new research tower planned for
construction on the medical campus--but it already is unusual
among the few similar programs in the United States, both in the
number of existing centers it unites--nine--and in the breadth of
clinical and research collaborations it supports.

For example, the Center for Inherited Disease Research,
which offers gene analysis and interpretation services for
scientists hunting for complex disease genes, is a joint
operation with the National Institutes of Health. The Online
Mendelian Inheritance in Man project is an internationally known
Internet-based database used globally by geneticists to share
findings. The Clinical Program in Genetic Medicine integrates
diagnostic, counseling, screening and treatment resources for
patients with genetic disorders and for their families. And a
newly approved Residency Program in Genetic Medicine will
coordinate postdoctoral training in genetics.

By most accounts, medical genetics as a recognized medical
specialty was developed by Hopkins' Victor A. McKusick,
University Professor of Medical Genetics, for whom the institute
is co-named. As a practicing cardiologist, McKusick developed a
keen interest in diseases that clustered in families, prompting a
systematic search for clues to their origins. He was among the
first to link the unusual cardiovascular and skeletal symptoms of
a known inherited disease--Marfan syndrome--with a single
defective gene. He also was the first to create a published
database of genetic information in people, helping to lay the
groundwork for the Human Genome
Project.

Daniel Nathans, a molecular geneticist long known for his
work with animal virus genetics, earned a Nobel Prize in 1978
with Hopkins colleague Hamilton Smith, for using enzymes as
biochemical "scissors" to cleave and thus analyze DNA. The work
ushered in the genetic engineering revolution of the last two
decades. More recently, Nathans received the National Medal of
Science, this country's highest scientific award. From 1995 to
1996 he served as interim president of the university.

"Because of people like Drs. McKusick and Nathans, Hopkins
has led the way in genetic medicine for decades and with this
institute, so appropriately named for them, will continue to do
so," said Edward D. Miller, dean and CEO of Johns Hopkins
Medicine.

Other centers and programs to be consolidated in the new
institute are the Greenberg Center for Skeletal Dysplasia, which
unites research, diagnosis and care of patients with congenitally
short stature; the Center for Craniofacial Development and
Disorders, whose physicians investigate normal skull and facial
development and the genetic events leading to malformations; the
DNA Diagnostic Lab, which specializes in testing for 14 genetic
conditions and their carriers; the Predoctoral Training Program
in Human Genetics, which is turning out the physicians and
researchers who will lead the next generation's genetic research
and treatment; the Genetics Resources Core Facility, a scientific
"superstore" providing biochemical reagents and other products
for researchers, as well as a cell culturing, DNA analysis and
research planning service.

Hopkins has a long-standing tradition of pioneering research
in human genetics. Researchers here were the first to assign a
gene, for the Duffy blood group, to a specific chromosome,
setting off worldwide interest in gene mapping. Professor
emeritus Barton Childs, who was head of Hopkins' first division
to study and treat pediatric congenital disease, discovered a key
rule of chromosome biology in 1963: that only one member of an X
chromosome pair is active. The first idea of the variability of
the gene for Huntington's chorea, a key diagnostic step, took
place at Hopkins, as have many of the earliest trials of gene
therapy for cystic fibrosis and gene-based vaccines for certain
kidney cancers. In recent years, scientist Bert Vogelstein was
the first to pinpoint genes for inherited colon cancer.

According to Chernow, funding for the institute comes from
existing and expanded sources, including grants, and both private
and corporate contributions.